7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In contrast to my preliminary task, I feel I have progressed a lot in my knowledge of media products. For my preliminary task I used the same font, making it look quite boring. I chose to put all the text on one side of the page. The image I used had to be stretched to fit the page, making the front cover look very unprofessional and not very appealing to the public. My final piece on the other hand, I feel looks a lot better. Use of different texts gives it a more professional look, the barcode in the corner with the price on it also makes it look more appealing as the price doesn’t stand out. I feel like use of more than one colour gives it some variety. I have learnt that front covers need to have variety to them otherwise they seem quite boring and not many people are likely to be interested in purchasing a copy. I have also learnt that it is important to think about what is going to be inside the magazine when you are working on the front cover; the front cover has to relate to the inside otherwise the customers would be disappointed with their purchase. I have learnt that it is important to not put too much text on the cover otherwise it will overwhelm the magazine and put the reader off.  

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To create my media products I used Adobe Photoshop and a Digital Camera. I had to use skills such as editing pictures, typing text in Photoshop, moving text, editing text, layering images and text over each other, flattening the image so it can be saved as one and finally editing text after the image had been flattened and saved. I did not find it very hard to create my media products as I have been using Photoshop for many years.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that IPC Media would be the best option to distribute my magazine. This is because even though they already publish music magazines such as ‘NME’ and ‘Uncut’, my magazine is aimed at a much younger audience; therefore it would give the company more range of product and audience. The fact that they already produce music magazines would give my magazine a head start as people already trust and buy the magazines IPC produce they are likely to buy my magazine as they might want to read something new from the company. Initially I considered Bauer Media, but I decided against this as they already produce ‘Kerrang!’ magazine which has a very similar target audience and genre as my magazine. Therefore it is very unlikely that they would want to have a magazine in competition with one of its own existing successful magazines.  

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media products represents the indie social group as I have used band names that people who are into modern mainstream music will not have heard of. I also used darker colours as opposed to using bright colours like most mainstream media products do, I thought that using darker colours would make my magazine different from everything else; more interesting therefore appealing to the alternative/indie market.

My double page spread is the album review that is mentioned on the front cover, under ‘2010’ at the top of the page. For my album review I also used bands that are not classed as mainstream bands, because I wanted my magazine to appeal to the indie market.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre for my media product is alternative/indie; I tried to convey this by having country music on the front cover, which is something not many people listen to. The inspiration for my magazine cover came from an issue of Uncut magazine. I saw the cover of the issue and I instantly liked it, I thought the way it was laid out was very clever. I made the main article of the issue one of the first things the reader would see so that it would grab their attention and make them interested in buying my magazine. I decided to put the price on the barcode, like Uncut magazine, because I didn’t want the price of the magazine to be something that stands out from everything else.

For my contents page I got inspiration from

 both Uncut and Mojo. I chose to use blue for the background, as the front cover and the double page spread were going to be black I thought I should have a different colour for the contents page. Instead of using a list of what is in the magazine. I broke it down into categories as most

 magazines do. I used a picture of a band so that it related to the page. I made sure that the page numbers were not one after the other as there is no magazine that has one page for each subject.  

Inspiration for my double page spread came from an issue of Mojo magazine; I liked this issue because of the way everything was arranged. It looked more professional and appealing. I thought about the positioning of all the icons and how I would type the text so that it all fitted together. As in most album reviews, number 1 always has more text than the others; therefore I used the same format for my own reviews. I made sure number 1 had more text and had a picture of the band so that it stands out from the page. I used a white strip at the top of the page because I did not want the whole thing to be black, otherwise it would seem a bit dull and boring.

2. How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience would be attracted by the front cover of my magazine. The masthead in white letters stands out amongst the black background. The use of a black background allows me to use white text, so that it stands out from the page making it more eye catching to the reader as opposed to using a white background and black letters. The colour scheme of black white and blue was inspired by an issue of Uncut magazine, I believe the white and blue really stand out against the black background. The cover picture is the first thing the audience will look at when they pick up the magazine; I layered the models head over the masthead to convey an almost 3D effect. I also chose to put the picture in black and white as apposed to colour otherwise it would not have fitted in with the rest of the colour scheme. I chose to include names of bands that would be featured in the magazine as a way of grabbing the reader’s interest, making them want to read on.

1. Who would the audience for your media product?

My target audience for my media product is 18-25 year olds. My magazine predominantly aimed at the male gender; 70% male and 30% female. I decided this should be my target audience because teenagers nowadays are very interested in up to date music, going to see live bands/solo artists and festivals. I used a questionnaire to put together my lifestyle profile of my target audience; I tested this questionnaire out on my classmates to make sure that I had achieved the target audience I was hoping for. 

Photoshoot

Front cover

In order to get the perfect photographs for my magazine, I used a Canon EOS 300D SLR camera. I took various photographs of my boyfriend in various different places around my house. I chose the photograph of him sitting on the step because I believe he had the right look on his face for the front cover of my magazine.

In order to make the photograph I had chosen look more professional and right for the front cover I used PhotoShop elements to manipulate the colours and lighting of the over all image. I decided to put the image into black and white and black out the background so that the white of his face would stand out against the rest of the colours on the front cover.

How I changed my chosen photograph.

The smaller photograph on the cover is of my friend Jed Grayston. I took the photograph at the forum when I went to see him play a few months ago. I decided to use this photograph because I think the angle creates good lighting on his face.

Contents page

For the contents page I used a photograph of one of the bands I mentioned that will be in the magazine. I copied this photograph off the internet and then pasted it onto my contents page. I also used a smaller version of the front cover so that it was clear to the audience that the front cover relates to what is in the magazine.

Double Page Spread

For my double page spread I decide to do album reviews as apposed to doing an article on a band or a singer. I chose to do this because I knew that I had all the albums I wanted to use, therefore It would be easy to photograph them myself. In order to do this, I took the sleeves out of the CDs cases, placed them down on the table and took a photograph from above. Once I had done this I transferred the image from my picture card onto my computer and cropped them to size so that they would all fit on the double page.

Vogue Research

Conde Nast Digital own and produce some of the biggest magazine in the world. For example; ‘Glamour’, ‘GQ’ and ‘Tatler’. Conde Nast Digital produce mainly fashion magazine, as it is one of the biggest industries to be in. This shows synergy in the business, as they can control what goes into their magazine, making sure they do not contain anything that would go against their own magazines. This also means that they can advertise and offer subscriptions to other magazines owned by them, such as Vogue advertising Tatler.

Conde Nast also has the ability to control what goes onto their magazines website, sometimes making similar magazines have similar websites. Such as the layout and content. At the bottom of the web pages there is a link to all the other web pages that they own, again this is an example of synergy of the company.

Contents Page

Contents Mock Up

Changes I made to the double page spread

In the planning and creating of my magazine, I made a few changes along the way. For example I changed the layout of the front cover a few times in order to have the best effect. However the biggest changes I made were to the double page spread.

When I started my double page spread I decided to do it on a white background, with a blue border. However once I looked at other magazine reviews, I decided that what I had done did not look very professional. Therefore I decided to change it all. I changed the background to black, took away the blue border and replaced it with a white strip at the top which I saw in ‘Uncut’ magazine. However I also changed it a few times again inbetween the original and the final product.

Double Page Spread